• guriinii@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Yes! It’s literally pollution.

    For those that want but are unable to maintain a lawn due to disability or ill health then there should be a scheme by the local council to cut it for them. This could would really well if a local council leaves more public space wild also. Then the work load may reduce but not entirely.

    • coffeebiscuit@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Or grow (bee friendly) plants.

      Biggest downside of fake grass are. The pollution from fabrication to microplastic waste. Biodiversity unfriendly and,… and! It burns your feet in a hot summer! Shit gets hot.

      Artificial soccer fields really radiate heat during sunny days.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      Lawns are also a total waste. It takes so much gas to maintain a lawn that serves literally no environmental purpose. At least fake grass you don’t need to waste gas to cut.

      Wild space is great though. We should be encouraging that and discouraging all lawns, fake or real.

        • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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          1 year ago

          Most people cut their lawn with a gas mower. Even electric requires an a mount of energy that is taking it from the grid, which unless it’s totally clean already is increasing dirty energy.

          • sijt@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I’ve literally never even seen, or even heard of, a gas mower. Almost all of them are electric (and our electricity mix isn’t perfect, but is better than a lot of places) with the odd one being petrol for especially large gardens, but that’s increasingly rare.

            Why the fuck would anyone use gas? That would be awful. Do you mean natural gas from the mains? Hydrogen? Bottled Calor gas? I’ve absolutely no idea what a gas mower could even be and searching is giving zero results that make sense.

            • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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              1 year ago

              Maybe they’re American and so mow their ten acre lawns with a sit on mower.

              UK gardens are about 3 meters long and you can just plug the mower in.

              • sijt@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Aye, sounds about right.

                Matey boy assumed the rest of the world is as wasteful as the US is.

      • Aux@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Wild space attracts dangerous insects like ticks. Back in my home country wild and uncut lawn is a serious administrative offence with a hefty fine.

  • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I think fake grass looks absolutely shit and I don’t like the environmental impact but I don’t think that banning it is the solution.

    Let’s see some incentives for people that keep their gardens wildlife and eco friendly like a council tax discount.

    • thehatfox@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If we are going to ban petrol and diesel cars, and oil and gas boilers, we can certainly ban fake grass.

    • NekoRiv@lemmynsfw.com
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      1 year ago

      There’s some fake grass that looks absolutely real. It’s just a bit pricier than most people would be willing to pay.

      I’m not advocating for it, just putting it out there.

    • yata@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I am curious as to why you think banning it isn’t a solution? Seems like a very obvious solution to me.

      • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I just don’t like the idea of banning everything I don’t personally agree with.

        I’d be the first to object if someone else wanted something I like banned just because they think it’s shit.

    • Mex@feddit.ukOP
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      1 year ago

      Tax the crap out of it, make it uneconomical for those who don’t need it.

        • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Rich people have no need for fake grass. There’s plenty of acres to take the dog piss and shit and Jeeves will take care of the gardening.

          Fake grass is for people that for some reason think it’s better for dog mess and for people that can’t be bothered to do a bit of gardening. It’s clearly not for the look because no one has ever said “wow, that fake grass looks even better than the real thing!”

    • Very_Bad_Janet@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      What’s the environmental impact of fake grass? Isn’t it better than real grass because it doesn’t need water or pesticides? (I don’t have a grass yard or lawn so I don’t know what upkeep a fake one entails. My neighbor has one in their backyard, which basically replaced dirt with a few patches of grass from the prior owner. We have concrete from our prior owner. )

      • thehatfox@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        There are a lot of environmental impacts created by far grass. For a start, they create substantial damage to local biodiversity. Real grass is home to many kinds of insects and other animals, as is the the soil beneath it. Other animals such as birds rely on those insects for food. Fake grass is a habitat and food source for nothing, and damages the soil beneath it.

        Healthy plant covered soil is also a natural carbon sink, so the mere existence of fake grass contributes to CO2 buildup. The production and installation of fake grass is also carbon intensive.

        Fake grass eventually degrades and requires replacement, and despite manufacture claims, recycling it is difficult and often practically impossible. The degradation of fake grass is also a source of microplastic pollution, which can be carried on the air or leach into the soil, and eventually reach water sources.

        That’s just a brief summary, there’s plenty of more comprehensive information available online. The stuff is quite frankly another disaster for the environment waiting to happen. A ban can’t come soon enough. There are plenty of better options for those that need an alternative to natural grass.

        • Very_Bad_Janet@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Fake grass is a habitat and food source for nothing, and damages the soil beneath it.

          This may be why my neighbors went with fake grass. They had the soil tested and it had a high percentage of lead. (They have a young child who was still crawling at that time.) They had to remove some of the top layer, IIRC, and put down some kind of protective membrane and then did fake grass on top. So this may depend on where you live. We have concrete in our backyard and bought playfalls (padded tiles that you sometimes see in playgrounds) to place under our playset. Luckily we did not have to deal with lead. We have plants that grow well in shade and a tree in our front yard (meaning, it’s just for looks - our kids can’t play in it.)

        • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.uk
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          1 year ago

          I went with a rocky garden instead of fake grass because the occupant of the house had a grass allergy. Why pretend and fill the garden with nasty plastic.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        You don’t have to put pesticides on your grass you know you can just leave it.

        It gets watered by the rain, and the rain falls on it regardless of if it’s real or fake or concrete. So it isn’t a waste.

        Anyway it allows for drainage. One of the reasons we get so much flooding nowadays is because we’ve concreted over everything.

      • YungOnions@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Plastic grass supports little in the way of biodiversity and will constantly shed microplastics. Actual grass also allows the absorption of rain water into the ground below, whereas fake grass does not. This can contribute to localised flooding, and causes problems for replenishment of aquifers. All in all its awful stuff and the sooner it’s banned the better IMO.

      • mackwinston@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        A lawn needs neither of these things, or if you choose just to have plants instead (which we did in our small garden) then that needs neither water nor pesticides. Occasionally I might pull by hand some straggly stuff, or use a small electric strimmer to tidy things up (e.g. the garden path when stuff starts growing between the paving).

        Unlike artificial grass, and even though my garden is small, this spring I had two birds nesting, I see quite a lot of bees and butterflies, and I just let the ants get on with doing their business. Pesticides and herbicides are never used. If there’s a plant I don’t want growing somewhere I can pull it up manually. There’s no need for the area to be super manicured.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      The environmental impact of actual grass that you keep cut is likely far worse. Preferably, grass lawns are banned generally. The expectation of keeping short grass maintained should die.

      • Rokk@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        So you’d rather concrete jungle over lawns? I feel like if you banned grass lawns that’s what you’d get.

        • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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          1 year ago

          That’s a stupid false dichotomy. Why would those be the only options. Clover is a good low growing grass substitute. You can also grow native pants in most of the space so cutting isn’t required. There are many options that aren’t grass lawns that require a ton of maintenance.

          • Rokk@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            You think if you told people they all had to get rid of their grass lawns heaps of them wouldn’t just replace them with a load of concrete if they didn’t want the maintenance? Enough people do it already without being forced to by a ban.

            • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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              1 year ago

              Sure, some would if that were the rule. How about we ban both. The option isn’t binary.

          • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            We’re in a thread about astro turfing lawns, so when you paraphrase “a kept lawn is likely worse for the environment”, what you are implying is that astroturfing a lawn is better for the environment than a real one. Which I think is a very bold statement to make.

            That aside I do like the idea of things like clover lawns, but is that going to appeal to the sort of person that astroturfs their lawn because “muh dog shit and piss” or because they can’t be bothered to get the lawnmower out?

            • BirdyBoogleBop@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              1 year ago

              It is. The grasses we use for our gardens are generally native, well unless you got some exotic grass for some weird reason.

              Also, let the weeds grow! Your perfectly manicured garden looks weird and monocultures are bad!

      • thehatfox@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Natural grass is a habitat and food source for many insects and small animals, and healthy plant covered soil is a natural carbon sink. Fake grass provides none of that, while creating substantial CO2 emissions in production and installation, and damaging local biodiversity.

      • Mex@feddit.ukOP
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        1 year ago

        The American style super manicured laws with sprinklers and all maybe, but your average home lawn that gets cut on average once a month and is the home to all sorts of wild life no way.

  • Darkard@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    We have only a small space in our garden that’s quite sheltered and has poor drainage. We use that space for the dogs to do thier business and if it was real grass there it would just be a toxic shit swamp.

    Also in the city near me they took up a lot of paving stones on a well travelled area and replaced it with Astroturf. Were it real grass it would be ground into a dirt track in a few days.

    There are useful applications.

    • Hogger85b@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Yep we had a small 3m square patch of paving, we tried turf and it died due to overuse with kids playing and use using it for sitting out, picnics and BBQs. The choice is deck or fake grass and fake grass is cheaper.

      We have wildflower border and fake grass currently.

    • blackn1ght@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      Also in the city near me they took up a lot of paving stones on a well travelled area and replaced it with Astroturf.

      Why didn’t they just keep the paving stones?

      • Darkard@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I guess they figured it would look nicer to have the fake grass with some tall planters on it that just the larger swathe of concrete with planters on

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    I stopped mowing my grass years ago and let nature take over.

    Looks a bit messy for the first few years, but after a while it’s a haven for insects.

    You’ve got to keep an eye so one thing doesn’t take over. Like I had to chop back and dig up the pampas grass plant, because I had no interest in being sliced to ribbons by a knife wielding triffid every day. Blackberry bushes are apparently a bitch and will take the lot so don’t have those.

    I’m sure the neighbours hate it, but I don’t give a fuck what they think. My garden doesn’t need watering and was still green last year when everyone else’s garden was brown and dead in the 40 degree heat.

    • Sarla@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Wild gardens are basically how most gardens should be kept, so nice one there.

    • Arghhh@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I did exactly the same, not only it was full of insects (and mostly ladybugs and later butterflies) but the plants seemed a lot more healthy.

  • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    Fake grass is bloody stupid.

    If you don’t want to cut your lawn either let it grow into a wild flower lawn, and pretend that that was the goal all along, and it’s not that you’re lazy.

    Or dig it up and set it up as a plant bed. At least that’s still real and not unconvincing polluting plastic.

  • G4Z@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    I just installed one of these for my g/f in her back yard catio and I think it’s great. I play 7 a side on it twice a week.

    Why would people want such a useful material ‘banned’? If you don’t like it, then don’t install it. If it doesn’t work out great in your space, then you can always remove it.

    In terms of waste, you can say that about literally everything we consume.

    • thehatfox@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Why would people want such a useful material ‘banned’? If you don’t like it, then don’t install it.

      For the same reason we are trying to phase out fossil fuels as an energy source - environmental degradation harms everyone. It’s not a matter of personal taste, it’s about protecting the planet we need to live on.

    • NickwithaC@lemmy.world
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      Why would people want such a useful material ‘banned’?

      Because it’s fucking up the planet and if you haven’t noticed, the planet has been taking quite the beating these past 3 weeks.

      In terms of waste, you can say that about literally everything we consume.

      Real grass is not consumed and thinking about everything in terms of human consumption is the problem. Change your mindset.

      • G4Z@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        Real grass is not consumed

        I’m not sure what you mean by that, but in many cases people are laying it over what otherwise would be concrete, or gravel places that are not suited to a lawn.

    • Jacobp100@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I have one because we have too much shade to grow grass. We have a 3 storey 60s house and a small, north facing garden. That said only one brand was recyclable at the end of its life, which is a shame

    • yata@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      In terms of waste, you can say that about literally everything we consume.

      So it is either all of it or nothing in your book?

      • G4Z@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        Do we ban everything wasteful?

        I’m not against it, I don’t like waste but starting with fake grass seems odd considering it has uses and there’s plenty of shit we manufacture that is properly useless.

    • MostlyBirds@lemmy.world
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      Why would people want such a useful material ‘banned’?

      Because it’s not actually useful, it’s just poison.

      In terms of waste, you can say that about literally everything we consume.

      Yeah, and we need to stop. It’s literally going to drive us to extinction, along with countless other species. This kind of apathy is disgusting.

      • Rokk@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It can be useful. It’s a great surface for doing any form of outdoor exercise on.

          • Rokk@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Claiming it’s “not actually useful” though is just wrong.

            • MostlyBirds@lemmy.world
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              If a thing does more harm than good, it isn’t useful, the people using it are just selfish.

              • Rokk@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                That’s an interesting new definition of ‘useful’ you have.

                • MostlyBirds@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  It’s certainly more sound than yours, which apparently requires nothing more than “it feels kinds of nice to step on” while it poisons the ground and eliminates yet more of your local ecosystem.

  • sunbytes@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This looks like a “make me an article out of this press release” article. It’s noise-news. Clickbait pagefiller crap.

    Also for the average size of a garden in the UK (median), it’s probably less plastic than a month’s worth of groceries wastes.

  • niktemadur@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    A quarter. And about half are still not entirely convinced that Brexit might not have been the greatest of ideas. Idiots.

  • The Cuuuuube@beehaw.org
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    The only arguments against fake grass are that it doesn’t look nice, and it isn’t made from sustainable materials. The arguments for fake grass include that it is low maintenance (negating some of the environmental impact), and that it is much better for people with accessibility needs.

    Meanwhile, grass lawns require lots if maintenance (not good at all for the environment), aren’t good for people with accessibility needs, and look boring and unvaried. Meanwhile the upside for a grass lawn is it looks traditional. To that I say, screw tradition. Grow clover, wildflowers, moss, and edible plants in your yard. These NIMBY brit-karens fan fuck off